The Malone University baseball team saw its Great Midwest Athletic Conference (G-MAC) Championship run come to end on Friday after suffering losses to Hillsdale College and Kentucky Wesleyan College on day three of the double-elimination tournament.
 
In a winner's bracket matchup between the two remaining tournament unbeatens on Friday afternoon, the Pioneers fell in game one to Hillsdale 11-6. Then facing elimination, Malone lost to defending Champion Kentucky Wesleyan 13-4 in Friday's nightcap.
 
Malone vs. Hillsdale Recap
For the third straight game, the Pioneers fell behind in the first inning, but after giving up a pair of runs in the top half, they matched the Chargers with two runs of their own in the bottom of the frame.
 
A pair of walks and a sacrifice bunt left runners on second and third for a red-hot Matt Noel. The junior catcher hit a high chopper over a drawn in third baseman to score both runs and tie the game at 2-2. Hillsdale responded, however, with a run in the second and two more in the third.
 
The Pioneers got two runs back in bottom of the fourth, one of which came on a RBI triple by Jacob Mottice. Facing a unique shift that featured a five-man infield, Mottice took advantage of the open space in the outfield by lacing a three-bagger into the right field corner. An RBI groundout by Turner Hill later in the frame brought Malone to within one at 5-4.
 
Hillsdale, the number three seed in the North Division, broke the contest open with three tallies in the fifth and two more in the sixth to take a 10-4 lead.
 
Freshman third baseman Clay Wisner led off the Malone half of the sixth with a solo shot off of the left field foul pole for his first collegiate homerun. Wisner's blast cut the deficit to 10-5 before an infield RBI single by Hill with two outs in the inning trimmed it to 10-6. The Pioneers would be kept off the board for the final three innings, however, while the Chargers tacked on a run in the eighth to secure the 11-6 victory and a spot in Saturday's G-MAC Championship final.
 
Noel, who extended his hit streak to 10 straight, Wisner, who scored two runs, and Mottice, who added a double to his run-scoring triple, each finished with two base hits. Joe Crank added his 16th double of the season.
 
Malone vs. Kentucky Wesleyan Recap
Matt Noel wasted no time in stretching his hitting streak to 11 games, producing a RBI single in the top of the first inning to give Malone a 1-0 lead.
 
That one-run advantage held until the bottom of the third when the Panthers took advantage of a costly Pioneer error and scored four unearned runs on four straight extra-base hits, including back-to-back bombs by Joe Burke, who hit his league-leading 21st homer of the year, and Andrew Kirkland, who hit his 11th.
 
Back-to-back doubles by Noel and Austin White in the top of the fourth allowed the Pioneers to cut the deficit to 4-2, but the Panthers tacked on two runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 6-2 lead. They then broke it open with seven runs in the bottom of the sixth.
 
The Pioneers scored twice to extend the game in the top of the seventh. An RBI single by Zach Mottice made it 13-3 before a sacrifice fly by Nate Cobb made it a 13-4 ball game. The Pioneers were then held scoreless over the next two innings as Kentucky Wesleyan advanced to its second straight G-MAC Championship
 
Matt Noel finished with three hits on the day, marking his 10th multi-hit game in his last 11 starts.  Austin White, Clay Wisner, and Nate Cobb each added a pair of base hits.
 
Malone, now 34-18 on the season, will await the results of the NCAA Selection Show this weekend as the top eight teams in the Midwest Region advance to the NCAA Tournament. The Pioneers were ranked ninth in this week's release of the rankings.